Health Hero Awards: Nurse whose patients love her so much they went to war to save her job

Do you know a health hero? The Daily Mail, in association with ITV’s This Morning and Lloyds Pharmacy, is asking you to nominate health workers who have made a real difference to your life or to a loved one.

Five finalists will receive an all-expenses-paid VIP trip to our Gala Dinner in London, where our Health Hero of the Year will win a luxury break worth up to £5,000. To make a nomination, fill in the coupon below.

Here, KATE WIGHTON tells one nominee’s story.

Kind heart: 'She was the first doctor or nurse who talked to me like a normal person,' said Clare Riddlestone who turns to nurse Anne Scott (right) for all kinds of advice

Clare Riddlestone admits she was in a terrible state when she met diabetes nurse Anne Scott.

Then 24, with a one-year-old baby, Clare hadn’t been looking after herself.

‘My blood sugar was too high and I wasn’t eating properly. I was lethargic, tired and felt very depressed,’ she says.

‘All the doctors and nurses I’d seen just spoke to me endlessly about blood sugar levels and insulin dosages, but hadn’t asked about me — the person. I felt quite lost.

‘I’d been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 11.

'For all those years I would go to diabetes clinics and see older people with feet amputated and think that was going to happen to me. I became very depressed about it.’

Anne believes that people with chronic conditions need long-term support

Then she went to see Anne.

‘She was the first doctor or nurse who talked to me like a normal person.

‘She asked me how I felt about my diabetes.

'I remember being in tears telling her I was constantly embarrassed about having diabetes, and that I’d never tell anyone I had it, which is dangerous as I could have collapsed and no one would have known that I urgently need sugar.’

Anne explained that she thought Clare’s low mood was down to her wildly fluctuating blood sugar levels — and feeling trapped by her illness.

‘She helped me realise that diabetes was just a part of my life, it didn’t define who I was, and it could be controlled with the right medication.

‘She also told me that I could call her any time for help and support.

'Honestly, that was a real turning point for me.’

Fast forward nearly 20 years later and Anne is still very much someone Clare relies on.

Recently, her daughter Hannah left home for university and while delighted for her, Clare was also very worried about being alone (she and Hannah’s father had separated 17 years ago).

Her fear was that there would be no
one to raise the alarm if her blood sugar levels fell dangerously low — a
particular worry as, having lived with the condition for so many years,
Clare’s body no longer developed the tell-tale warning signs of low
blood sugar, such as fatigue and dilated pupils — she’d just fall
unconscious.

Clare called
Anne.

‘I was so frightened at the thought of lying at home for days
before someone found me. I thought my life might even be at risk.

‘I spoke to Anne and she talked about how she felt when her children left for university, and explained it’s natural to feel a loss.’

Anne then recommended adjustments to Clare’s medication so her sugar levels are kept higher than they were before, which means she’s more likely to develop tell-tale symptoms.

She’s a remarkable diabetes nurse, says Clare. Shortly after starting at the diabetes centre at Ipswich Hospital in 1995, Anne established one of the country’s first feet clinics.

'We’re essentially asking people to obey the speed limit every day for the rest of their lives — there’s not one hour they can stop thinking about their diabetes.

We're asking you to nominate people in the healthcare sector who have made a difference to your life

‘Part of my role is to help them deal with the practicalities. But it’s more than that.

‘People often come to me very depressed and have what I call chronic sorrow.

'It’s like a bereavement — once they overcome the initial shock they usually suffer a terrible low every couple of years and will call and ask for a chat.

'They’ll say it’s about their blood sugar, but I know it’s really about life in general.

‘And that’s exactly what I’m here for — to help them through these traumas.

'My colleagues sometimes laugh at me because I am always touching patient’s hands or stroking their faces when they’re upset.

‘But when I trained as a nurse there was an emphasis on how to care for people and how to listen — they were key aspects of the job.’

Anne, who has three grown-up children, gives many of her patients her private mobile number and tells them to call whenever they need help.

‘Giving patients your number gives them comfort and security, and if that helps them then I’m happy, too.’

On one occasion, one of her teenage patients called her at night saying he’d dropped his insulin on the floor of an Indian restaurant and was trying to suck it off the carpet using a syringe.

Anne immediately told him to stop, drove from her home straight to the hospital to collect some more insulin and then took it to the restaurant.

For Jenna Rumbellow, Anne’s dedication has been lifesaving.

‘I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Anne’s help and support,’ says the 23-year-old.

During her late teens and early 20s, Jenna struggled to keep her type 1 diabetes under control.

‘I just wanted to be normal like everyone else, to go out and have fun. I was in complete denial — I never checked my blood sugar and I ate what I wanted.’

This had disastrous consequences when Jenna was 21 — ‘I was in hospital more than 50 times in one year, sometimes twice a week

NOMINATE YOUR HEALTH HERO...

(The closing date for entries is midnight on Friday, April 19, 2013)

Then in May 2011 she was found
unconscious at home.

Her blood sugar reading was 98 — it should have
been between five and ten — and Jenna was rushed to hospital, where she
suffered a cardiac arrest.

Doctors managed to revive her, but she
spent the next two weeks on life support. Jenna, who was diagnosed when
she was just three, had met Anne before her hospital admissions.

While she was in intensive care, Anne
would visit every day, texting the family to let them know she was there
whenever they needed to talk. But her real impact was felt after Jenna
left hospital.

Jenna recalls: ‘We talked a lot and
she helped me realise that I could still be the same as everyone else —
I’d seen lots of doctors throughout my life, but never met anyone like
Anne.

'I could tell her anything. It’s so nice to know that someone is
there who you can call at any time — even if it’s a Saturday or Sunday —
and who will take time to help and listen to you.

‘Anne also texts me all the time to
ask about how I am and how I’m feeling — she says she nags me, but I
never think of it like that.’

'We talked a lot and she helped me realise that I could still be the same as everyone else - I'd seen lots of doctors throughout my life, but never met anyone like Anne,' said Jenna Rumbellow

Jenna, who is expecting her first
child in August, says she is a different person from the one who was
rushed to hospital two years ago.

She says: ‘I haven’t been admitted to hospital since I left intensive care in 2011.

‘The people at the clinic say I’m a changed person, and Anne is a huge part of that.’

Anne’s dedication and relationship
with her patients has inspired deep affection and loyalty — indeed, when
her job was threatened by budget cuts, her patients petitioned the
hospital trust to keep her.

In fact, Anne had decided that as the oldest member of staff she should be the one to face the chop.

‘I’d had to make two members of staff
redundant two years before and never wanted to do that again, so I
thought it should be me,’ she says.

‘When I told the patients, they became
quite angry about it — and started a petition to keep me and sent it to
the hospital trust head office.

‘They even got coverage in local
newspaper for it. Eventually we were told we wouldn’t have to make
anyone redundant. I was very touched — just thinking about it makes me
cry.’

It was the least the patients could do, says Clare.

‘She is someone who takes the weight off your shoulders — and that’s priceless.’